King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

Chapter Two Hundred Sixty-One

Sephie

“Are we taking the long route again, my adorable Russian guardian?” I asked Misha as we got ready for our morning run.

“I’m down if you’re down. It’s colder this morning than I thought it was going to be, so I don’t know how long you want to stay outside. I don’t want to be the reason you stay cold the rest of the day,” he said.

“As it happens, running warms me up,” I said, grinning at him. “But I love you for thinking about that. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I ha te being cold.”

“I might’ve noticed. I’m very observant,” he said, sarcastically.

As we set off on our run, my mind was still replaying the conversation with Adrik from the night before. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d missed something about Armando and now we were in trouble. Even though I felt like I’d missed something, I still couldn’t see what it was I’d missed. I was still having trouble believing that Armando could be playing both sides. He’d seemed so upfront and honest about everything from the beginning.

The great thing about running with Misha is that he enjoyed the silence. I’d tried running with Max a few times and he always tried to talk to me while we ran. I hated it. I liked to be left alone to my thoughts. It was a great way to work through problems in my head. Or not. Sometimes I didn’t think about anything and just enjoyed the break. Either way, Misha was there, silently ensuring I was safe.

It took us almost two hours to go the long route. Misha used to struggle to make it all the way, but he looked like he could keep going this morning. Once we slowed to a walk, we usually talked about anything and everything on our way back to the house. I enjoyed my alone time with each of them and I think they enjoyed it with me as well.

that,” he

sleeping?” I asked. It was a random thought that just popped into my head, which I had learned was usually an indication that the

anybody yet, but it’s been happening for

asked. While it was adorable and heartwarming that he had gotten so angry at her accusation, I was starting to get concerned at his inability to let

ever been so angry at a chick for something she

then looked at the ground, like he knew I was right, but he still didn’t want to let go. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this one, my adorable Russian guardian, but Karma tends to come down harshly on

listen to my own advice. I’m having the same problem, just with Armando,” I said.

said. “I want to like him, but he said a few things

He’d never talked about this, so I

to dinner. We all knew it was because you could barely walk and told him as much. He made a rude comment about

“What did he

you wouldn’t be able to walk much anytime. He said it quietly and I think only me and

also a little concerned. “Have you heard him

was the worst one, but then there was that really awkward toast he made to you. I didn’t think he knew you well enough to talk about you like

clean up. I always thought he was trying to set me up with his son. He would ask me questions about my personal life, trying to find out if I was single, blah blah blah. I never told him anything of importance and I never really thought anything of it. I was just happy to have some help. When Adrik and I were talking about this last night, he pointed it out that he wasn’t asking for his son. He was asking for him,” I said. I looked up to see Misha’s reaction. His face scrunched up much like mine had the night before, I couldn’t help but laugh. “I had the same reaction. But if you take that into consideration and you also take into account that the other bosses had put Armando into somewhat of a leadership role while you guys were gone trying to get Viktor hack, it gives Armando a motive to be playing both sides right now. Adrik came back and basically in one night took back the city and took me away from Armando. Not that there was EVER a chance of that happening. For the record. I felt like that needed to be said out